Opinion | Michigan should shut abortion clinics and use supplies for coronavirus

Genevieve Marnon is legislative director for Right to Life of Michigan

Michigan’s coronavirus epidemic has seen exponential growth in the past several days. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has issued a series of executive orders in an attempt to contain the spread, including a “stay at home” order and a directive banning all non-essential medical procedures in order to free up scarce medical supplies.

On March 24, Michigan’s entire federal congressional delegation sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence imploring him to send more personal protective equipment (PPE) to Michigan since our supplies are at dangerously low levels. Masks, gowns, gloves and other necessary gear are essential for our front-line medical providers who are treating coronavirus patients. They are at heightened risk of contracting the disease. If healthcare workers become sick, a greater strain on the already burdened healthcare system could spell disaster.

Also, the governor issued a news release calling on Michigan citizens and businesses to donate any personal protective gear they may have to their local hospitals. Whitmer has repeatedly taken to the airwaves, calling on the federal government to send more supplies. She has said health care workers are being forced to re-use face masks as a result of a shortage.

Right to Life of Michigan responded with a news release identifying a source of additional PPEs: every abortion facility in the state. As of this writing, elective abortions are taking place across the state using up desperately needed gloves, gowns and masks.

Other surgeons have been forced to close their surgery centers and postpone all non-essential medical procedures. Many people are being asked to live in pain and disability because their knee, hip, and shoulder surgeries are cancelled. Yet, non-emergency, elective abortions are being allowed to continue by Whitmer. These facilities are using up PPE as our doctors and nurses battling the coronavirus are put at risk due to lack of protective gear.

Ideology over safety is never a good idea. Many, including our governor, are so wedded to abortion-on-demand that they are willing to risk the lives of hundreds by allowing abortion providers to selfishly use up the very supplies needed to protect health care workers battling a pandemic. Abortions are almost never medically necessary and should therefore be halted just like all the other non-essential medical procedures.

Abortion may be a constitutional right, but then again so is exercising religious freedom and having the liberty to come and go, yet those enumerated constitutional rights have taken a back seat to fighting this coronavirus. We are all in this together. It is highly unfair to allow some elective procedures to continue while others are denied. We call on our elected officials to temporarily close abortion facilities, thereby freeing up the PPEs for use by our hospitals.

Our governor has taken dramatic steps—unprecedented—to attempt to save lives; that is commendable. So, it is unfortunate that she is unwilling to take even the slightest measures to protect future citizens. As of April 2, 417 fellow Michiganders have died from coronavirus infections. From our first Ccoronavirus death on March 18 until March 30, approximately 940 unborn Michiganders have died in our state’s abortion facilities. Saving all lives matters.

We urge Michiganders to call Governor Whitmer and ask that abortion facilities be closed, and the PPEs be sent to local hospitals for courageous staff on the front lines of the pandemic. She can be reached at her Lansing office at 517-373-3400.

This continuously updated post includes details of Michigan's confirmed COVID-19 cases, maps of locations, state curve data, what the state is doing to contain the spread, and expert suggestions on how you can stay safe.

Bottle returns can resume June 15. Drive-ins, immediately. Ditto for housekeeping services. But you have to wait until next week for restaurants and bars. And still no word on when tattoo shops, hairdressers and trampoline parks can reopen.

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I guess so we don't have to see dirty hangers, there should be free morning after pills sold without prescription at grocery stores, given all the talk we hear about increased domestic violence, rape, incest, etc.

How convenient that Right to Life would use this crisis to push their agenda and politicize the issue. Perhaps we would believe they were truly "pro-life" if we had heard even a peep of protest out of them when Trump was calling for sacrificing our elderly to boost the economy (and his re-election chances).

Me too. I thought this was supposed to be a nonpartisan website. This is a backdoor way for the GOP, and crazy right to lifers with their hypocritical arguments, to deny a right for their own personal agenda. This doctor is a quack. Who is going to support the mother and child once born? Surely not the GOP or this quack doctor. If this is what she so believes in then she should donate all of her salary for the rest of her life to help people who are forced to have children at a time when they are not ready. Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land.

Just because they included an anti abortion OPINION doesn't mean they aren't non partisan.....in fact if you read the OPINION right after hers, it's pro abortion....so your complaint is not only moot, but ridiculous!!!!

If you are truly concerned about preserving PPE, compare the following scenarios and then decide if it makes sense to force a woman to continue an unwanted pregnancy during a pandemic.How much PPE is consumed during a legal abortion?Then compare that to:How much PPE is consumed during pregnancy check-ups?How much PPE is consumed during normal labor and delivery in a hospital?How much PPE is consumed for an emergency C-section in the OR?How much PPE is consumed if a mother or infant needs a prolonged hospital stay as a result of complications during delivery?How much PPE is consumed caring for a premature baby who has to remain in the NICU for months?Clearly, an early legal abortion is going to use a fraction of the PPE compared to any other scenario.

Your logic is sound. In addition to offering free abortions, we also should terminate the mothers life at the same time, freeing up addition PPE's. This also has the added benefit of reducing the potential number of cases.

This is an unconscionable article.Here's why:Representative Paul Ryan, (R-WI) introduced H.R. 3. , back when he was in Congress. This bill redefined rape to mean “forcible rape.” It meant that a woman who does not physically fight a rapist’s advances whether it was a stranger husband, or acquaintance, she could not claim she was raped or get an abortion. So, if their wives or 10-year old daughters said no to unwanted sexual predator’s advances and were not beaten, they simply were not raped and would be forced to give birth to their attackers’ progeny. The House then passed it.

And: "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." - Televangelist Pat Robertson.

Plus, “I think this reason why girls don’t do well on multiple choice tests goes all the way back to the Bible, all the way back to Genesis, Adam and Eve. God said, ‘All right, Eve, multiple choice or multiple orgasms, what’s it going to be?’ We all know what was chosen.” --Rush Limbaugh

Or: Easy Rape: “If you go down that road, some girls, they rape so easy.”, spoken by Republican State Representative Roger Rivard, (WI).

Even this one: Enjoyable Rape: “If it is inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.”, spoken by Republican Gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams (TX).

Then: The Gift From God Rape: “When life begins with that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen.” spoken by Republican Senate Candidate Richard Murdoch, (IN).

Here's another one: "If a woman has (the right to an abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman?” At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t (in most cases) result in anyone’s death.” Lawrence Lockman, Maine Republican State Representative.

If this group doesn't care enough for America’s women to protect their reproductive rights as citizens, then how can they care about their own grandmothers, mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and granddaughters?The morale majority are neither.

And you’ll notice every single person you quoted was.....a man. Clearly, there are waaaaay too many men pontificating about women’s health care..... In Marnon’s case here, she apparently doesn’t mind being a tool for male oppression of women.

All I can say is this is pathetic. Destroy the country over something this insignificant its just unbelievable. This has given me a better outlook on are government. The numbers don't add up. Can't wait to see what freedoms are gone after this.

“He that Is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her,” -John 8:7.Since you are so concerned with religious freedom in the time of a global pandemic, tell me, Ms. Marnon, are you without sin? Are you without mistakes or things you wish you had done differently? If I recall, Jesus did not preach self-righteousness, or cruelty. He preached kindness, and acceptance, and community, all things that are lacking in this opinion piece.Who is going to pay for all the resulting births and medical costs due to the lack of safe, legal abortions? Is there a clause in the new stimulus package for these women and the children that they do not want?Using an emergency to push your own self-righteous agenda is disgusting. Instead of jeopardizing women’s basic rights, I encourage you to think about what led us to this crisis and lack of medical supplies in the first place.

Once every right to lifer has adopted every single child that needs to be and will need to be adopted in the United States, then and only then they may have a leg to stand on with this latest anti-abortion push. Other than that they need to stop trying to force people to live by their values. Keep your nose out of other people's business and stop the further shaming of yourselves by using covet 19 and other epidemics to come the platform to impose your will on people. You people are like the Mormons/salesperson coming to my door. Please just go away!

I also think it's a cop-out to put a child up for adoption. If you love life so much, keep the child. Don't force the woman to give it away because her pregnancy shamed the family. So your dad, brother, uncle, brother-in-law, gardener, dad's boss, priest, etc. raped you or drugged you or seduced you, don't just give the baby away. Make your family see their crime everyday for the rest of their evil lives.

You think that the federal government should have the authority to force a private company to turn over it's PPE to the local hospital? Should the military be sent in if they don't immediately comply? Perhaps the employees should be thrown in prison too. Is that the country we live in? These clinics don't even receive tax dollars to perform abortions not that that really matters. I think a better idea would be for the federal government to seize your bank account and use your funding to provide abortion services to women is the state's where you have had some success in depriving women of their constitutional right to control their bodies and the size of their families. You know damn well abortions cannot be put off for a couple months because of a virus. There is a small window of time to perform the procedure despite the narrative that near term babies are often killed in this country. The mother certainly considers an abortion essential or she wouldn't have sought to have it in the first place. I'm glad Gov. Whitmer doesn't allow herself to be influenced by your extremist organization.

You think that the government should have the authority to force a private company to turn over it's PPE to the local hospital? Should the military be sent in if they don't immediately comply? Perhaps the employees should be thrown in prison too. Is that the country we live in? These clinics don't even receive tax dollars to perform abortions not that that really matters. I think a better idea would be for the government to seize your bank account and use your funding to provide abortion services to women is the state's where you have had some success in depriving women of their constitutional right to control their bodies and the size of their families. You know damn well abortions cannot be put off for a couple months because of a virus. There is a small window of time to perform the procedure despite the narrative that near term babies are often killed in this country. The mother certainly considers an abortion essential or she wouldn't have sought to have it in the first place. I'm glad Gov. Whitmer doesn't allow herself to be influenced by your extremist organization.

Abortion is not elective surgery. It is time sensitive and cannot simply be put off. During a quarantine situation, it is even more important that this procedure be available to those who are now less able to afford a child or who for many other reasons don’t wish to have a baby.

Hard to believe it can be conceived as forced trauma by stopping the killing of the Womb Babies. And to insist on using the medical equipment to save lives is hardly an evil. Wake up as you are soon to whither as grass and face your Maker, God Himself.

Another example of what will eventually destroy this country. Whether righty or lefty, these people of sub-quality character and intellect take every opportunity to push "their" political agendas down everyone's throat. Even during a pandemic that is killing and will kill thousands of Americans and at a time when critical, complicated and timely decisions need to be made to save lives, you have people like this that think only about themselves. Finally, please spare me any line about "the unborn children", how about all the LIVING children that are being supported by the 10 million people that have lost their jobs the last two weeks???

For the win! Let RTL take care of the kids that aren’t getting school breakfasts and lunches. Maybe RTL can dip into their multi-million dollar coffers and buy new shoes for the kids who need them whose parents aren’t working...maybe pay health insurance coverage for every kid whose parent lost their employers health insurance. RTL is all about telling other people what to do but won’t raise a finger to help kids who are already born.

A woman can get an abortion while other women with breast cancer are being told that mastectomies are elective surgery. Wow I never thought I’d see the day when killing a child would be given a higher priority that saving a life. Unbelievable.

Ok....soooooo, let’s address how much PPE the average hospital birth uses.....and so, according to her, let’s increase the number of hospital births to conserve PPE. That’s the reasoning. Seriously, girlfriend, shut up and sit down.

I makes me so sad to think that all the comment I read are all for abortion. And what is abortion killing babies. They better stop having sex and they won’t get pregnant so they don’t have to kill someone

This is the most ridiculous thought process heard yet. When people like me protect your right to your own body, this means we protect those of you who will never want or need an abortion. You will never be forced to have one! Think about it. Prochoice should be honored at a time of great stress in our country.

Please go to RTL.org to see how babies are killed in dismemberment abortions. The baby is still alive as he/she is torn apart to "harvest" brain, lung, etc. These baby parts are sold! Also the US gov't gives over $500,000 to Planned Parenthood. The mother who has the abortion pays hundreds of dollars for the procedure which she may have been coerced into. The abortion "clinic" is not sterile, but dirty!Some of these mothers die after the procedure. Go buy the video "Unplanned" to see how this industry works.

It seems that many pro abortion readers fail to understand just what non partisan means. It does not mean that you only read articles that promote your political point of view. It means you may see editorial articles, such as this one, that promote either side of an issue. If you only want to see pro abortion I'd suggest you visit the planned parenthood or democratic party web sites.

Abortion is not a constitutional right unless murder is a constitutional right. Last I checked, it isn't... This writer is totally clueless and it's also pretty clear that she is actually arguing for abortion, not against it. Nice try.

Remember it is only Right to Life for the fetus. Once the child is born, Right to Life disappears into the woodwork. Right to Life--have you ever heard creeps like this lady arguing before legislatures and governors for food, health care, housing for babies and their parents or for older children and their parents. Never! They only what to control women's health care! What a lamebrained outfit.

This article is spot on!! Since when is killing babies "essential". Last I knew it was a "choice" which if you're smart enough to discern means "elective". It is discrimination that churches be closed while baby killing is open. Abortion is not nor will it ever be HEALTH CARE. As far as the cost of PPE for giving birth vs PPE for abortion, THE POINT IS SAVING LIVES! Plenty of abortionists have botched abortions causing women to need emergency medical care at a real HOSPITAL. Check out Michigan's own Cree Erwin in Kalamazoo, MI which happened as recent as 3-4 years ago. Abortions are NOT safe and coat hanger abortions are a LIE perpetuated by the industry to get abortion legalized as they admitted. If you don't like a man weighing in on abortion, then we should overturn Roe v Wade IMMEDIATELY because it was 7 MEN who made it legal. No uterus no choice? ok good point, now let's undo Roe because those 7 MEN had NO SAY IN THE MATTER.

Laughable that you care for the "coronavirus victims", when they are mostly poor. Given the Republicans and pro-lifers voted over 50 times to repeal the ACA, put in Medicaid work rules to limit health care, are against food for the poor, and came within one vote of taking health care away from 26 million Americans.

As we have seen repeatedly, zealots and religious fundamentalists have made this debacle worse throughout the country. Why do you want us to be Mississippi?